


A Beautiful Moon

by Rubyleaf



Category: Shadow of the Fox Series - Julie Kagawa
Genre: Bonding, Canon Compliant, Canon Gay Relationship, Changing Feelings, Character Study, Daisuke has a lot to think about, Falling In Love, M/M, Missing Scene, Natsume Souseki references, Okame wanted to eat the moon as a kid, Or: "How and when did Daisuke's feelings towards Okame change?", Post-Shadow of the Fox but pre-Soul of the Sword, you can feel my triumph through these tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22897150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubyleaf/pseuds/Rubyleaf
Summary: After the battle of Satomi's castle, a wounded Daisuke lies awake. Awake with him is the full moon—and so is Hino Okame, who he no longer knows what to think of.
Relationships: Hino Okame/Taiyo Daisuke
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	A Beautiful Moon

Daisuke can’t sleep.

All around him, his companions have long dozed off. Yumeko lies curled up barely an arm’s reach away, mumbling and shifting in some restless dream likely related to the Kage demonslayer. Master Jiro, Reika, Chu and Ko all lie piled up among the roots of a tree like a slightly odd-shaped family, in a position the miko will likely be very embarrassed about in the morning. It’s the middle of the night. No sound is heard, except the occasional quiet whisper of the wind.

Daisuke shivers. His wounds are dressed and patched up, but he has lost a lot of blood, and the wind feels cold. Still colder, however, his failure sits inside his bones. Failure to protect the demonslayer. Failure to stop him before the demon could take him over.

His eyes stray and land on Okame’s back. The ronin has taken the first watch, sitting cross-legged beside the group, the breeze brushing lightly through his hair. His clothes are no longer as presentable as they were for the party earlier—the good new fabric is torn and stained in many places, smeared with both dirt and dried blood. For some of it, Daisuke suspects, he himself is directly responsible.

And yet, as he sits there in the moonlight, the ronin looks quite…serene. He sits perfectly motionless, listening to any unusual sounds, only his shoulders rising and falling slightly with every breath. There’s something distinguished about his calm silhouette, something dignified, despite his torn clothes and messed-up hair.

_You were a samurai, once._

Daisuke has never thought much about it before. Before today, Hino Okame was just a ronin to him—an odd, frequently annoying person who knew no way to speak to him except taunts and hostility. Someone to ignore, pretending not to hear his mockery to avoid a pointless fight.

Now he knows better. Now he knows that the person in front of him is more than meets the eye: someone who fought bravely, who risked his life for his companions in a way many wouldn’t have dared who outrank him by far. Someone who, when push came to shove, put aside his hatred to help Daisuke and make him feel better about his own failure.

Someone with the spirit of an honorable man.

_What happened to you, I wonder? How could someone like you fall from grace?_

For a moment he considers asking him, then decides against it. He and Okame may be on better terms now, but he doubts the ronin trusts him enough to share his story just yet. Whatever happened must be too painful to tell someone he has only known for a handful of days.

“If you think I can’t feel you staring at me, Taiyo-san, you’re underestimating my instincts.”

Daisuke snaps out of his thoughts. Okame has turned around where he sits, looking down at him with a wry smirk—no longer hostile, but far from trusting.

“My apologies,” Daisuke answers with a pleasant smile. “I was lost in thought and forgot myself.”

“Lost in thought, huh.” Okame crosses his arms. “What were you thinking about, some philosophical stuff that’s too complicated for us lowly commoners?”

For a moment Daisuke considers lying; he decides against it. “I was thinking,” he answers, “about how there is more to certain people than meets the eye.”

“Ah.” Understanding dawns on Okame’s face. “Yumeko-chan, huh? You better not start liking her too much, or Kage-san will cut your head off.”

Daisuke sniffs indignantly. “I have no such intentions,” he says. “Besides, I was referring to you.”

Okame freezes where he sits. Blinks. Then looks away, raking an awkward hand through his hair, messing up his ponytail.

“What,” he says, “didn’t expect the ronin dog to know some tricks?”

Daisuke squirms inwardly; to his shame he has to admit Okame’s taunt isn’t too far from the truth. “I did underestimate you before,” he admits. “But today you fought bravely—and honorably.”

“Don’t be stupid.” Okame waves a dismissive hand. “I just stung the monster a few times and then got stuck in a collapsing tower. You’re the one who did most of the work.”

Daisuke makes no response. He doesn’t feel like he did that much, or at any rate he didn’t do enough. From a more rational perspective, however, Okame is probably right.

Silence falls. For some time neither of them looks at the other.

“How are your wounds?” Okame asks at last.

Steeling himself, Daisuke tries to shift and immediately winces with pain. “Far from healed,” he says, “but not life-threatening. What about yours?”

Okame shrugs. “I’ve had worse.”

“I’m glad.”

Another silence. Okame turns away again. Before he knows it Daisuke’s eyes land on his back once more, even though he knows it’s rude to stare. Something about the way the pale light of the moon falls on the ronin keeps drawing his gaze.

The moon…

He looks up. There it still is, the full moon, the same one everyone is gazing at from the capital at the Moon Viewing Party. It seems very bright tonight, very large…and quite beautiful. It has never looked this beautiful anywhere at home.

“It’s a lovely moon tonight,” he muses, “isn’t it?”

Okame turns back around, looking at him, then at the moon, then back at him. “It’s a full moon,” he says. “What about it?”

“I think it is rather beautiful.” Daisuke tears his gaze from the moon to look at Okame. The pale light is reflected in the ronin’s eyes. “Certainly more beautiful than seen from anywhere in the capital. All the people at the party have no idea what they’re missing.”

Okame snorts. “Maybe you should tell them,” he says, “so they can come here.”

Daisuke ponders the suggestion, then shakes his head. “If they were all here, I doubt it would be as beautiful,” he answers. “Some things only unfold their full beauty if you look at them away from the crowds.”

“Like the moon?”

“Apparently.”

“I don’t get it.” Okame shrugs again. “It’s just a light up in the sky. Sure, it’s nice that it’s there, but I don’t get the poetry.” He gestures up. “I just know that as a kid, I always wanted to eat it.”

Daisuke snorts. “What?”

Suddenly the ronin looks slightly embarrassed. “It kind of looks like a dumpling, doesn’t it?”

The corners of Daisuke’s mouth twitch. He gives a quiet laugh that quickly dissolves into a pained cough and a groan. “Now that you mention it, it somewhat does,” he admits. Then he narrows his eyes, feeling mischievous. “Did your parents not feed you enough as a child, Okame-san?”

“Oh, shut up!” Okame still looks embarrassed, but he’s grinning right back. “Like you never wanted to eat stupid stuff as a kid!”

“Certainly not the moon.”

“I’m never telling you anything again.”

Daisuke sobers up. “In that case, I take back my remarks,” he says. “If you were to truly never tell me anything again, that would be quite regrettable.”

Okame gives him a look that, in the dark, is impossible to read. “Are you claiming you’re interested in a ronin dog’s stories?”

He smiles back. “I won’t know that until I hear them, will I?”

Their gazes meet and interlock. Okame looks increasingly uncomfortable, and finally he lowers his head. “Better not,” he says with a wry smile.

“Why not? I rather like your story about wanting to eat the moon.”

“Shut up about the moon already!”

Daisuke laughs quietly. Okame tries to keep a straight face and fails miserably, and soon he joins into the laughter. And for a moment they aren’t noble and ronin. For a short moment they are simply two young men around twenty, staying up too late, talking and laughing about silly nonsense in the middle of the night.

And Daisuke finds that he likes it. He wishes, deep down, that they could carry on like this for longer without facing any consequences.

An impossible dream, he knows. Hino Okame is far below his station. Soon they will have to go back to normal. But he…

He is…what, exactly?

Daisuke searches for the word, but cannot yet find it. It’s too early to say. But what he does know is that, whatever the feeling will turn out to be, it feels better and more right than many things in a long time.

His eyes drift up to the moon, bright and full and so much clearer than at home.

_The moon is beautiful._ What poet was it again who said it means, _I love you_?

Love…?

Possibly. It’s too early to say, too early to be certain. He will have to wait and see. All he can say for now is that he cares about Hino Okame, in a strange way, that he considers him a companion…a friend.

The light falls on the ronin as he sobers up and resumes his position for the night watch. It spills over him, caressing him gently, making him look elegant, almost ethereal—torn clothes, grime, messy hair and everything.

Daisuke relaxes where he lies.

The moon is beautiful tonight.

Hino Okame, he decides, is beautiful too.


End file.
